Braiding-machine.



H. z. COBB.

BRAIDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED OUT. 18. 1911.

1,1 17,330, Patented N0v.17, 1914.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

lmmilimlml umumnnm i I 3 WITNESSES: INVENTOR.

E. Z. COBB.

BRAIDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 00T.18.1911.

Patented Nov. 17, 1914.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

S E S 5 E m W ,By Aiaww /J, nann E A/Q a H. Z. COBB.

BRAIDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED 00T.18. 1911. 1 1 17 330, Patented Nov. 17, 19M

4 BHBBT8-SHEET 3.

INVE/V TOR.- gii M j 6% 5? fiyfltzfvrmey H. Z. COBB.

BRAIDING MACHINE.

APPLIUATION IILED 001'. 1B. 1911.

Patented Nov. 17, 191i lNVENTOR! 21 61.4

WITNESSES.-

I It}.

HENRY Z. COBB, OF WHI'CHES'IEB, MASSACHUSETTS.

BRAIDHIG-MACHHWQ.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY Z. Conn, a citizen of the United States, residing in Winchester, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Braiding-Machines, of which the followirig is a specification.

This invention relates to machines for the production of braided fabrics, and particularly tubular fabrics adaptable for use as hosts In the making of two-ply or multiple-ply braided fabrics, it is desirable to unite the braided webs b some textile connection other than that a orded bythe webs themselves in order that each web may be distinct. ln my Patent No. 937 ,021 granted October 12, 1909, I have set forth a means for uniting distinct parallel braided webs by interlacing with them uniting strands interbraided with the respective webs by means of a supplemental series of bobbins, which in a braiding machine pass alternately between the raceways traversed by the bobbins which braid the respective webs. The product of that invention is a tfibular fabric of two (or more) plies, each ply constituting a distinct braided web, and these being intimately united by strands or yarns interbraided with each, and passing alternately from each into the other, these interbraiding or connecting yarns traversing the tubular fabric completely so as to constitute a series of helices; and being preferably extended in right and left spirals so as to cross and interbraid with each other.

My resent invention produces a fabric in whlch the interconnecting yarns or strands instead of progressing helically around the tubular fabric, are e'xtended longitudinally thereof and are interwoven with the braided yarns. The product is therefore somewhat similar to what might be roduced by sewing singlethreads throng it from its outer to its inner sides, such threads forming parallel lines of stitching uniting the outer and inner webs at sufficiently frequent intervals. 3

The invention finds its greatest utility in the case of two-ply or multiple-ply hose; but it is a plicable to a sin le-ply hose in which the ongitudinal stran s or webs have the effect not only of strengthening the fabric but of directl resisting'a lon itudinal pull thereon, an conmquently ren ering it Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 18, 1911.

' the core on which the brai Patented Nov. 17, 1914.

Serial No. 855.352.

less liable to stretch than is an ordinary braided hose.

In practising my invention I may employ an ordinary braiding machine, preferably one capable of simultaneously. braiding two or more webs, and I combine with this machine a means for introducing the desired number of longitudinal warp yarns into the braided fabric, such means consistin pref erably of shuttles with suitable mec anism for throwing them in proper succession through the shed of converging yarns from the braider bobbins. The braided fabric being delivered longitudinally without rotary or twistin motion, and the shuttles being each con ned to its own path, these paths being fixed or non-rotative, it follows that the yarns paid off from these shuttles and interwoven with the braided-yarns, constitute true warps, since they extend longitudinally of the fabric, as distinguished from those which progress 8 irally or helically around the tubular fabric, as in the case of my previous patent.

In the accompanying drawings,-Figure 1 is a vertical mid-section showin one embodiment of this invention as app ied to an ordinary type of multiple-ply braiding machine; Fig. 2 is a partial horizontal section of the machine taken mainly in the plane of the line 2-2 in Fig. 1, and showing the relative arrangement of the bobbin raceways and the warp shuttles; Fig. 3 is a fragmen tary lan partly in horizontal section showing t e gearing for driving the respective shuttle throwing mechanisms; Fig. 4 is a vertical section on a larger scale showin one of the shuttle throwing mechanisms an the shuttle in its relation thereto; Figs. 5 and 6 are respectively side and front elevations of one of the shuttles; Fig. 7 is a plan there of showin also its raceway, and Fig. 8 is an enlarge sectional view showing a etail; Figs. 9, and 10 are respectively an elevation and a longitudinal sectionof the produced fabric.

. Referring to the drawings, A designates mg is done, and B B'the bobbins which are carried by carriers C C which traverse sinuous race-wa s D D (Fig. 2) in a well known manner. T e racem'ays are cutin the usual plate F beneath which is the usual plate G, and between these lates are the usual gears (not shown) whic drive the bobbin carrier's, all

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these parts being well understood in hraiding machines.

A in Fig. l is the usual driving shaft from which motion is taken for driving the various parts of the braiding machine. In the present machine this shaft through miter gears and an intervening shaft It drives an upper shaft J and it also drives an upright shaft K. From these shafts J and K the shuttle operating mechanism to he described is driven.

The yarns a a which are drawn ofi t'rom the hohhin carriers, converge at the braiding point t where they are drawn together upon the core A to torm the hraided fahrie A. A; take-up is provided for moving the finished tahric up out of the machineas fast as. it is produced, whereby to lreep the braiding point I) at the same place. The converging yarns a a constitute a shed which is in the form of an obtuse cone. Tn the case ot a two-ply tahric this shed is in tact double, the yarns forming. one ly interlacing and drawing together distinctly from. those which torm'the other ply or weh,

As many shuttles are provided as the number of warps to he introduced into the taloric. Sin for example are shown in Fig. 2. Each of the shuttles L is carried on a slide or other suitable carrier M, and this in turn is adapted for engagement with the shuttle guides or. raceways I? it. These lather are arran ed partlyahove and partly helow the she oil converging yarns a, or in other words are made in two alined sections separatedhya suficient s ace to enahle the converging yarns-oi thes ed to pass freely hetween them. This space or ga is hridged hy the shuttle slide or carrier Rd in moving across the gap. Each shuttle moves at prescrihed intervals from one side to the other of the shed, their respective positions heing shown in Fig. tin full lines and in dotted lines. Thus the warp yarn c which is paid old from the shuttle is moved alternately .ahover and heneath the shed, so that it passes hack and forth from the outside to the inside of the finished product The shuttle 'is pointed at hath ends so as to readily separate the hraiding yarns a a in passing through the shed. v

The shuttles may he driven across the shed at the; prescribed intervals lay any one of a variety oil shuttle throwing mechas. The requisite of such mechanisms is that they shall move their respective shuttles uiclrlyj enough so that the; assage otthe uttle through the shed shald not interfere with, the desirahly tree movement of the converging hraig yarns. it is also desirahle that the shuttle throwing mechanism ehallmove the shuttles in aprescrihed succeasion andnt preecrihed intervals oiftime, in order to the wraps through the jfahrie with the desired frequency and mthe desired relation. As this is partly a matter of taste or caprice according to t e appearance desired to he produced, no specific proportioning ot the moving parts 1s essential to the invention.

The drawings show a suitable and the preterred shuttle throwing mechanism, hut this is illustrated only as an instance of many different mechanisms that might be devised tor this purpose.

This mechanism will now he described. The racewaylP for eachshuttle is formed partly in an u perframe Q and partly in a lower frame 3 there being of course as many pairs at these frames Q Q as there are shuttles. As they are duplicates of each other except for their relative inversion, a description of one will suffice. Taking the upper frames Q, each is formed atjts lower end with the race-way P, which is here shown as a dovetail groove fitting the dovetail sides ot the shuttle slide or'carrier M. lln each frame Q'is mounted a plunger R which moves in line with the shuttle carrier M, and which when it descends pushes down the carrier M and thereby forces the shuttle to cross the shed into the race-way formed in the opposite frame beneath. The plunger it is suitahly guided and is pressed upwardly by a s ring S reacting against the rrame Q, and w ich is host coiled around a sliding rod S as'shown. For driving down the lunger R it is shown as provided with the teeth d which are engaged to the'teeth of a train of mutilated gears, as host shown in Fig. t. The rack is directly engaged by the teeth of a wheel e which is .liaedly connected to a.

stop gear fwhich is driven lay a mutilated gear 9 on a shaft h. The gear f has a concave which receives the toothless periphery,

p of thegear 9, so that while this portion is in engagement with it, the' wheel' f is held stationary. At the prescrihed time the teeth on the gear g engage the teeth of the gear f and turn it and the gear e through one revolution. The teeth of the gear 6' thereupon enga e with the rack teeth d and pushdown the p ringer lit until the'last tooth e disengages itself from the melt teeth, so that the glun or is set free, whereupon it is immelate y returned to its original position. hy the on ansion ot the spring S. A hudert is Elli) provided to relieve the shock at the instant oi stopping the movement of the pluner. 'lhe gears g f e are driven at such speed t at t e escrihed movement ot the plunger ocours with such rapidity as to cause the shuttle to move as-quiclrly as isdesirahle through cept for their being relatively inverted. The upper frame is provided with a yielding stop j to uphold the shuttle carrier after it is pushed up, and prevent its falling out of lace; while this may be duplicated in the ower frame, yet this is not essential, as the weight of the shuttle and its carrier will keep them down in place. The stop 7' as shown is a sprin bolt with a rounded end so shaped as to 0 er only suflicient resistance to the downward movement of the shuttle carrier to prevent its falling, but without seriously obstructing its being pushed down by the plunger.

The group of mutilated gears described with reference to Fig. 4, is duplicated for each one of the shuttles. This requires that motion be imparted continuously to the shafts h. of each one of these series of mechanisms. A suitable and convenient connection for accomplishing this is that best shown in Fig. 3, where the shaft It already described is driven by miter gears is directly from the shaft J, and in turn the shaft h at its opposite ends is provided with miter gears which mesh with the next successive shaftsh, and these in turn with shafts h, and so on, until the entire series of shafts has been completed, which with six shuttles requires the one aditional shaft h as shown. The bearings of these shafts and the various connected mechanisms are mounted upon a suitable supporting frame R.

The mechanism just described is duplicated for the upper series of plungers and for the lower series of plungers, with only this difference, namely, that the shafts of the lower series of mutilated gears take their motion from the upright shaft K through bevel gears kf as shown in Fig. 1.

The precise construction of the shuttle is not important. That shown in Figs. 5 to 8 has the bobbin or cup I mounted within a skeleton frame which on one side has a hinge member m, the free end of which is engaged by a spring latch p (Fig. 8) which may be released by an operating pin g.

The fabric which is produced by this machine is shown in elevation in Fig. 9, and in approximate vertical section in Fig. 10, In these figures a are the braided yarns and 0 are the longitudinal warp yarns which are laid in by the shuttles, the latter being shown as of darker color to more effectually distinguish them. In Fig. 10 the two braided plies or webs are distinguished by the layers w and 'v. The inner layer a: is the usual rubbertube which forms the lining of the hose. This tube may itself constitute the core A in Fig. 1, or this core may be any suitable mandrel.

It will be observed that the warp yarns c by being repeatedly passed between the inner and outer surfaces of the fabric, not only serve to strongly unite the outer and inner webs or plies, but also serve to impart longitudinal strength to the fabric by resisting a stretching strain. This resistance they afford however with a certain degree of elasticity due to the zigzag path which they make in passing through the plies. The use of these longitudinal warps is also of advantage in a one-ply braided fabric, which is strengthened and made more resistant against stretching strains by the presence of these warps.

The process and product herein described are not claimed in the present application, being made the subject of a divisional application filed April 8, 1912, No. 689,232.

I claim as my invention 1. A braiding machine combined with shuttles adapted to cross the shed of braiding yarns to introduce longitudinal warp yarns, and mechanism for throwing the shuttles through the shed, such mechanism comprising a continuously moving driving part and mutilated gears.

2. A braiding machine adapted for making a tubular fabric,combined with a series of shuttles adapted to cross the shed of braiding yarns to introduce longitudinal warp yarns, and mechanism for throwing the shuttles through the shed in succession, such mechanism comprising a continuously moving driving part and mutilated gears.

3. A braiding machine combined with shuttles for introducing longitudinal warp yarns and shuttle throwing mechanism comprising opposite plungers, and mutilated gears engaging the respective plungers at intervals to project them to push the shuttles through the shed.

4. A braiding machine combined with shuttles for introducing longitudinal warp yarns and shuttle throwing mechanism comprising opposite plungers, and intermittently acting gearing adapted to engage and alternately project the opposite plungers to throw the shuttles through the shed.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HENRY Z. COBB.

Witnesses:

Wmrano W. Harms, Auzxaxom Parsons. 

